The decision by Fidelity to close its Marlborough operations and transfer most workers out of state may not seem on the surface to have a connection to small business interests, except for two things: First, we are all – big business, small business, individuals - part of the same economy. What happens with one affects the other. Of the 1,100 workers whose jobs will move, how many, for example, patronize local restaurants, barber shops, dry cleaners, gas stations, banks, groceries? Virtually all of them, so Fidelity’s departure means more than 1,100 empty parking spaces. It means the loss of 1,100 customers for countless small businesses in the area.

Secondly, the response by state leaders to the news is indicative of the current state of the Massachusetts’ business climate.

Gov. Patrick responded from across the Atlantic Ocean, where he was trolling Europe on a so-called trade mission. How does the Governor explain to his potential trading partners why Fidelity, which has thousands of employees in those countries, is moving people from Massachusetts – the place he is touting as good for business?

“They gave us little notice and no opportunity to compete for these jobs,” said the governor. Actually, they gave him five years. And apparently the accumulated weight of his policies was enough to tip the scales in favor of New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

Instead of reflecting on how its own decisions have made Massachusetts less competitive, the Legislature is now considering ways to penalize Fidelity for abandoning Marlborough. Members are claiming that the company has been the beneficiary of tax breaks since 1996 and they want the money back. While they’re at it they should examine whether punishing Fidelity will make it more or less inclined to keep its remaining 7,000 employees here.

Whatever tax breaks Fidelity may have received (state law prohibits the disclosure of how much) they are probably modest in comparison to the $58 million dowry that was paid to lure Evergreen Solar, which took the dough, stayed a year and then promptly announced plans to move to China.

The tragic difference between the two companies is that Fidelity is a domestic company. It was founded and grown in Massachusetts. It is nearly as much a part of our identity as the Red Sox and the Patriots. And it is not alone in its decision. Massachusetts has failed in the last ten years to create a single new net job. Large companies leaving get headlines, but how many smaller businesses have packed up and left with little notice from the state’s policy makers or were never located here to begin with.

Administration officials and legislators would do well to de-emphasize foreign “trade missions” and spend more time talking to small business owners and corporate executives who have been employing people here for decades. Ask them about how to make Massachusetts a better place to start a business, stay in business, and grow a business.

They would likely begin with my original premise – that we’re all in this together. The governor said that Fidelity executives were in his office recently, and that they have open access to his top officers. He suggested that he would have been willing to offer inducements, presumably like the tax dollars that Evergreen Solar used to finance its new Chinese operation.

With all due respect to the governor, this is not an economic strategy.

It is an admission that we don’t have one. Having to induce some companies to come here, and having to practically bribe others to stay, is to acknowledge that there are powerful reasons to do neither.

Massachusetts should be generally attractive to businesses of every size. Its policies should be uniformly rewarding. An effective economic development program would lower the marginal costs of doing business for the 200,000 businesses operating in Massachusetts today. Fidelity’s move will, for example, probably save the company more than a quarter million dollars annually in unemployment insurance payments alone. And if, after having been punished for closing one office, it decides to transfer even more people out of state, it could very possibly save millions of dollars.

The truth is that Fidelity did not decide to transfer 1,100 employees to neighboring states because of the weather, or because they were hoping for another special deal from state or local government. It moved its Marlborough operation because that made more economic sense for the long term.

Instead of lecturing corporate executives and wallpapering their offices with subpoenas, the governor and lawmakers should be using this development as an opportunity to reconsider the tax and regulatory policies that have made Massachusetts a great place to leave.